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September 28, 2012

23 More Species Protected in Hawaii

An important win for some of Hawaii's rarest species: On
Monday the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized Endangered Species Act
protections for 23 Oahu species and protected more than 42,000 acres of those
species' most important habitats. The decision is the latest product of the
Center for Biological Diversity's historic agreement last year to speed up
protection decisions for 757 imperiled plants and animals around the country.

Twenty of the species
in this week's decision are plants, including four identified as the
"rarest of the rare," numbering fewer than 50 individuals remaining
in the wild. The other three species are damselflies -- shiny-winged insects
that metamorphose like butterflies -- and most of these species have been declining,
and on the waiting list for protection, for years.

I'm a Master Naturalist and an outdoor enthusiast -- mostly kayaking, and I live on a Peninsula in the Chesapeake Bay. I'm the author of The Nature Fan, Nature Fan Activists, Green Earth Almanac, and Amanda's Geographic. Formerly, I ran the nationally syndicated column "National Green Activism" for The Examiner, and I was a key factor in the success of many campaigns. Make sure you don't miss a post, and subscribe by email! Thanks for reading.